Tag: Ricardo Arona

Five years ago a Cameroon national judo team member by the name of “Sokoudjou” shocked the world by taking out highly-touted PRIDE veterans Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona. One fight prior to his coming out party, “The African Assassin” met up with an equally tough Brazilian named Glover Texeira, who at the time was training with UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell at “The Pit” in San Luis Obispo, CA. Texeira utilized his superior stand-up to test Sokoudjou’s chin and let’s just say that Rameau’s jaw wasn’t prepared for the pop quiz.

Texeira has been on the UFC’s radar for some time. Chuck Liddell told me a year ago that the light heavyweight, who sometimes moonlights as a heavyweight would likely be Octagon-bound as soon as he sorted out his visa issues, but he’s been stuck in holding pattern fighting on regional Brazilian cards. Hopefully the 31-year-old makes it Stateside some time soon. The UFC’s light heavyweight class could use a shake-up.

Ricardo Arona has been pledging a return to action pretty much every year since his last bout in 2009 against Marvin Eastman at Bitetti Combat 4, but has failed to deliver on the promise. According to the former Rings middleweight champion and former PRIDE standout, by “this year” he actually meant “next year,” meaning 2012. If the world doesn’t end like some whack jobs believe it will, Arona says we can expect to see him make his triumphant return.

In an interview he did recently with Globo, “The Brazilian Tiger” says the reason he’s had to push back his MMA return was that life got in the way, but that he’s had no shortage of offers from promotions.

“I went back to prepare myself physically and to finish building a training center in my house in Niterói. It’s pretty big and full. I want to return early next year. First I want to be ready to compete in anything, God willing,” Arona explains. “My goal is to do that, no doubt. I received an invitation from Strikeforce and several national events, but did not close anything. I’m hoping to be ready to return.”

(I don’t do this for everybody, but I’m willing to drop my asking price to $250,000 and a 10% stake in the UFC. Have you seen my fight with Fedor?)

According to Ricardo Arona, he is only one win away from getting an invite to the UFC, but finding a promotion to fight for hasn’t been easy for the former PRIDE middleweight champion.

"That conversation with Dana White was basically about it, that I’d fight again in other event to recover my rhythm, and it’d be a good thing for me. I’d like to fight on UFC, I feel like I’m ready for it, but if I have to fight again first, there’s no problem with that, too," he recently told Tatame’s Guilherme Cruz. "[War on the Mainland] called me about fighting [at one of their] events, but there’re nothing set. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I want to fight abroad, not in Brazil."

Former PRIDE middleweight champion Ricardo Arona is planning his return to the UFC, even if the promotion hasn’t decided whether or not they want him.

"The Brazilian Tiger" told TATAME that he is planning another trip to Las Vegas this weekend to attend UFC 116 so he can meet again with Dana White to discuss with the UFC president the prospect of one day fighting in the UFC’s Octagon.

Here’s one for the Pride nerds out there: A report from MMAFighting.com on Saturday says the UFC may have softened its stance on Ricardo Arona enough to slide a contract his way some time in the near future. This news comes after a report by Tatame.com last year quoted company president Dana White saying some not-so-complimentary things about the streaky light heavyweight. Now Arona says he hopes to make his Octagon debut by October or November.

But why stop with the merely implausible or ill-advised possibilities? Clearly, this is a total shit-show of a problem that requires a total shit-show of a solution. Allow us to examine the possibilities…

With my girlfriend and dog out of town this weekend, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. So, I decided to eff around with iMovie and put together the above highlight reel of Kazushi Sakuraba‘s most brutal beatings. (Has there ever been a fighter whose victories were so beautiful and whose defeats were so ugly?) I’m no Genghis Con, and most of the footage was taken from low-quality YouTube clips to begin with, but let me know what you think, and if you have any Sakuraba fans in your life, please pass it along.